Play Ideas - Teddo Play Cards

Written by Emily Dalby

 

 

After seeing the new additions to the website, we just knew we needed to try out the Teddo Play cards! As a home educating family they looked like a really great resource so we decided to go for the 'Where our Food Grows' cards.

 

The cards are a really good size, they are a good thickness so sturdy enough to use without bending or curling edges like you'd get with paper or card. On one side there are real life photographs of various fruit and vegetables and on the other side of the card, it has the name of the fruit or vegetable along with some facts. The cards come in a lovely little storage box to keep them in and the magnets are included, if like us, you intend to use them on boards for learning.

 

 

 

Jack is 8 now and we grow a lot of our own food so he is pretty confident about how our food grows, but he learnt a lot from these as there are some uncommon fruits and vegetables in the set as well as ones he is more familiar with. 

 

He enjoyed sorting them into fruits or vegetables immediately after they arrived, we read through some of the facts together and also talked about which ones grew above ground or under ground, which then lead onto further discussion.

 

 

As our latest topic was all about bees, we decided to take them outside and Jack's challenge was to place all of the cards on his board that he believed were pollinated by bees. Some we found needed bees to pollinate them to produce fruit or vegetables and for others, bees are needed to pollinate the flower so that seed could be produced and saved ready for next year's crops. We decided both of these were equally important so included both on our board. This then left only a small few cards that were not included which showed just how heavily we rely on bees and other pollinating insects for the food that we eat.

 

The next day, Jack wanted to take the cards out with us again. This time he completely initiated and led the activity himself and was thoroughly engrossed in it for a good amount of time. He found the cards of the fruit and vegetables that we had growing in our own garden and decided he wanted to match them up and take some photos of them. This is a really simple activity that even younger children could do as the photos on the cards accurately represent the growing plants. This led into lots more discussion and a blindfolded 'what's that herb' smelling game before he decided all the talk about food had made him hungry so he went for a snack from the salad bed!

 

We are really glad that we ordered these cards and already have a few more on our list that we can't wait to add to our learning resources. There are plenty more ideas that we have for them yet! The next being adding them to a large wall map and looking at the countries where they are most commonly grown in. If you haven't discovered this brand yet, they are totally worth a look!